


Beware of Monsters

by kristen999



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Angst, Coda, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-01
Updated: 2015-11-01
Packaged: 2018-04-29 11:14:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,072
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5125418
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kristen999/pseuds/kristen999
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve may have witnessed the horrors of war, but it was another type of terror when you discovered the monsters that lived right next door.  Coda to 6.06.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Beware of Monsters

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to Amy for such a swift beta!

***

Steve stood in the dark kitchen, chest heaving while the adrenaline rush still coursed through his body, Lou quiet beside him. Steve licked his lips and tried taking a deep breath, mentally counting to five in his head. He only got to three before his chest hitched for oxygen, and this time he closed his eyes, willing his training to kick-in and force the technique that got him through gun battles and drug raids to settle his nerves. But all he saw was the flash of light from the basement, the rotting body on a metal table, the limbs of innocent women sewed unnaturally together. 

His gut clenched, bile burned down the back of his throat, and he leaned against the wall willing his body to behave.

“Hey, you okay?” Lou asked. “McGarrett,” he said quiet and calm. “Give yourself a minute, man.”

Steve let out a shaky breath. “I’m good.”

“You sure? Because you ought to see the left side of your face right now and it ain’t pretty.”

Steve stared at Lou, the corners of his mouth curving the slightest bit. “Thanks. I’ll be sure not to enter any beauty pageants anytime soon.”

“Good, because you’d come in last.” Lou matched Steve’s nerved-filled grin. “Seriously though, you okay? Did you knock your head?”

It took a second to realize he was still leaning against the wall and Steve stood straighter, the punches he’d taken to the face finally making themselves painfully known. “No, I’m fine. I just...” His thoughts began drifting back to the mutilation in the basement and he forced the images away. “It’s just been a long time since I’ve seen something like that.”

He’d witnessed mass graves, untold horrors from the battlefield, and the worst of human kind. Or at least Steve thought he had until he’d been with Five-O. Before discovering other types of monsters lurking at home, ‘hiding behind a mask’, Max’s voice sounding in his head. 

Gut clenching, Steve’s mind raced over the last few minutes, remembering he’d meant to call Danny on the ride here. He needed to know if he was all right and find out if everything with Grace was good. But it was late, and Steve was off his game right now, so he’d wait in the morning. 

“So,” Lou said, gesturing at the basement door. “What about Dr. Frankenstein?”

Steve flashed to being on his back, the knife striking the floor centimeters from his face, endorphins and highly fined instincts taking over. He’d knocked the blade away, rolled out from under the killer, and then fractured the fourth vertebrae in the man’s neck. 

“Frankenstein’s dead,” Steve said, walking out of the kitchen. 

***

Danny sat uncomfortably in the middle seat of the pick-up truck between Grace and the driver, some weird brand of country rock blaring from the speakers as the guy yammered about the weekly gig he played at some dive bar. When Danny called AAA for a lift, they’d quoted him a four-hour wait time because of the holiday. There’d been little choice but to ride with the cousin of the girl whose house he knocked on to use the phone. Sometimes his badge came in handy.

Grace’s eyelids drifted closed as she kept nodding off, the night’s events beginning to catch up to her. Danny glanced over at her every few seconds, heart sinking at how fast she was growing up, a young teenager where his baby girl once sat. If he had it his way, she’d be grounded until her high school graduation.

Sighing, he glanced out the windshield watching the nighttime slowly fade, knowing the sun would rise in less than hour. With Grace safe and his car secured, his thoughts wandered to the case, curious if they were any closer to catching the sick son of a bitch responsible for the deaths of four women. 

He couldn’t help looking over at Grace again, giving her a tight smile when he caught her watching him. They didn’t talk about tonight, not in front of a stranger, so his mind kept going back to the murders, concern nagging him at what might have happened while he’d been gone. 

“Are you worried about something, Danno?”

“Hmm? No, why?”

“You have your worry face on. Is everything going to be okay with Charlie?”

Grace never showed any jealousy or possessiveness when he and Rachel told her that he was Charlie’s father. While he didn’t think Grace would resent her baby brother, he’d been unsure how she’d react between being a young teenager and the constant strain of a child of divorce. He shouldn’t have ever worried.

“We’ll know in a few weeks if the marrow transfusion worked, but the little guy’s tough, he’s doing really well.” Danny didn’t mention missing his first trick or treating with his son, stomping down the anger over the loss of the previous three years with the future so unknown.

“Are you worried about Uncle Steve?”

Danny automatically looked at his phone, biting his lip. They’d been out of cell reception for a few hours while waiting on the tow truck and now it was almost dawn. There was no telling what happened with the case, if Steve had tried to call, if the dead zone had eaten any text messages or calls.

“If there is one thing I’m not worried about, it’s Uncle Steve.”

Grace looked at him with a frown; she opened her mouth to say something, but changed her mind. Maybe it was to call him out of his obvious lie, but given the situation, she probably didn’t want to test those waters yet.

He looked at the blank display of his cell phone and reluctantly put it back in his pocket. Once the sun was actually up, Danny would give Steve a ring. 

***

Sleep avoided Steve, or maybe he couldn’t give into its lure, knowing he’d get trapped by images of limbs and dismembered bodies. He sat up in bed, sheets pushed to edge of the mattress, skin hot and sticky from the warm night and coursing restlessness.

He’d gone days without sleep in-country, operated on a couple hours during cases, his reflexes still sharp. This shouldn’t be any different, except for the dread of going down into that basement still lodged in his chest. Of seeing what was left of those women...

He got out of bed, watched twilight give into dawn, eyes darting to his watch and phone on the nightstand. His Sig next to them instead of inside the drawer where he normally kept it.

It was still too early to call Danny and after having to deal with Grace all night Steve feared that texting him would wake Danny up and piss him off. But he needed to hear Danny rant at him for disturbing his sleep, at the warmth hidden underneath the annoyed tone to chase away all the shadows still lingering all around him.

Steve grabbed his cell phone just as it vibrated, his eye going wide in relief after reading the text. 

_Just checking in. Everything okay?_

Steve sat staring at the display not knowing what to type in response. 

The phone vibrated again. _Had a long night, don’t ask. Going straight to the hospital to see Charlie. Text me and let me know how the case’s going._

He wiped a hand down his face, wincing when he rubbed at the healing bruises. 

_Or you could text me. Because you are a danger magnet and I want to know you’re okay._

Steve couldn’t help the smile as he typed. _I’m fine._ He hesitated before continuing with, _could you drop by later?_

Danny texted back in seconds. _You do know I haven’t slept yet, right?_

Steve had forgotten. He started to text Danny to forget about it when his phone messaged him again.

_I’m thirty minutes away from the hospital. I’ll come over around 8 after I’m done._

That left Steve with a couple of hours, but he knew who might be having as a difficult time after this case. He got dressed so he could visit Max and get out of his head.

***

Danny was physically and mentally exhausted, heart heavy as his taxi pulled up. The idea of leaving his son behind tore him apart, he wanted to take Charlie away from those IVs and sterile walls, allow his child to be just a happy little boy. But Charlie would be okay, he had to be, Danny would believe in the land where the glass was half full, the one Steve insisted was the only way to live.

And he’d hold onto that optimism even when his gut had been niggling at him all night. Not that life threatening type of danger, but the slow creeping kind of worry that dug a hole inside. Danny called the desk clerk at HPD and while Steve hadn’t brought anyone in for booking, the officer told him Lou had requested the coroner’s office pick up a body to take to the morgue. Their case was closed.

Except Danny’s gut still wouldn’t settle down. Arriving at Steve’s, Danny let himself inside and quickly realized his friend was outside on the lanai. Steve stood unmoving, staring out at the sea, gaze seemingly lost. 

“Hey,” Danny greeted, walking over to stand next to him. 

Steve turned around and gave Danny the most bone-weary smile. “Hey.”

Danny frowned at the cuts and bruises marring Steve’s face. “You forget how to duck?”

“I was a little busy at the time,” Steve said with a hint of sarcasm and something much darker.

And Danny listened to Steve tell him about the killer’s lair, of meat hooks and torture devices, of a nightmare from out of a horror movie. He didn’t yell at Steve for searching the house alone, resisting the urge to punch him for lurking in the dark basement instead of waiting for Lou. Danny just listened to a man who never talked about his feelings, open up his heart and lay it bare before him. Sharing with Danny the rarest of trust.

“Have you ever wished we weren’t the ones who did this? Hunted these kinds of people down?” Steve asked, his voice worn and thin.

“All the time,” Danny said brutal in his honesty.

“I’ve seen things, Danny, horrible things, but last night,” Steve’s words trailed off. “Then I feel guilty and I..."

“Hey.” Danny grabbed Steve’s arm, squeezing his bicep. Steve may have witnessed the horrors of war, but it was another type of terror when you discovered the monsters that lived right next door. “Don’t ever feel guilty for being human. That’s what separates us from the evil in the world.” 

Steve nodded, but Danny knew it was a practiced gesture to reassure people, but Danny wasn’t just any person, and he pulled Steve into a giant hug. And Steve hugged him back, strong, desperate, and thankful. Danny held onto him, gave Steve the comfort he needed, the comfort Danny felt sometimes he couldn’t give to the ones he loved the most.

“Hey, how’s Grace? How’s Charlie?” Steve asked, finally pulling back, leaving his hands on Danny’s shoulders.

“That’s a story for after a night’s sleep and a couple of beers.”

“Then I suggest we go back inside and close the curtains for a day-long nap.”

Danny smiled warmly at Steve, because they tended to reassure each other in many other ways, both their lives a complicated mess. But it worked for them, for now. When so many others walked in and out of their lives, they had each other.

Steve wrapped his long arm around Danny’s shoulders, pulling him to his side. “Come on, like you said earlier, you haven’t slept.”

“I think that makes two of us,” Danny said, snaking an arm around Steve’s waist, enjoying the warmth of his skin through his shirt. “I bet you didn’t catch much sleep after last night.”

Steve’s silence was his answer and Danny turned around to face him. “I told Charlie he wasn’t allowed to grow up. And you,” Danny said, running a gentle hand down the uninjured side of Steve’s face. “Never stop being an armor-covered marshmallow. Promise me.”

“I promise,” Steve said with such warmness.

Danny felt a fondness inside his chest. “Then let’s go to bed, babe.” 

Because there was no doubt in Danny’s mind that they would both sleep all day, without any of the most recent nightmares haunting them.

***  
fini-


End file.
